This blog will present news items about the motion picture business, with emphasis on lower budget, independent film in most cases. Some reviews or commentaries on specific films, with emphasis on significance (artistic or political) or comparison, are presented. Note: No one pays me for these reviews; they are not "endorsements"! Starting in May 2016, many of the reviews for new feature films have been done on a hosted Wordpress site, and this blog now mostly does shorts and older films.

About Me

Since the 1990s I have been very involved with fighting the military "don't ask don't tell" policy for gays in the military, and with First Amendment issues. Best contact is 571-334-6107 (legitimate calls; messages can be left; if not picked up retry; I don't answer when driving) Three other url's: doaskdotell.com, billboushka.com johnwboushka.com Links to my URLs are provided for legitimate content and user navigation purposes only.
My legal name is "John William Boushka" or "John W. Boushka"; my parents gave me the nickname of "Bill" based on my middle name, and this is how I am generally greeted. This is also the name for my book authorship. On the Web, you can find me as both "Bill Boushka" and "John W. Boushka"; this has been the case since the late 1990s. Sometimes I can be located as "John Boushka" without the "W." That's the identity my parents dealt me in 1943!

Sunday, July 11, 2010

"Predator III" dumps its characters on an M-star planet

I don’t know of any other film where the major characters are airdropped onto a landscape to survive and don’t know that they are on another planet.

So it is, in Fox’s “Predators”, as we first see Royce (Adrien Brody) approaching the jungle below, and then the others, who, as in many “set-up” horror films (of the “Saw” variety) don’t know who everyone is and are faced with a puzzle. But soon Royce notice that the Sun never moves (pretty good observation; maybe mercenary soldiers or special forces would see that) – up to that point, it has been a bit like a “Restrepo” sort of movie where maybe Sebastian Junger could have been cast. But it’s getting scary, with enormous booby traps and bizarre monsters hunting them. Then they notice four big moons in the sky (they look too much like gas giants). So they know they are marooned.

Now astronomers say that M-stars are likely to have smaller planets always facing the same side, which would mean that at any point it is always the same time of day and same sun angle (unless there is some wobble). So the climate is mild around the fringe, too hot in the middle, and freezing on the other far side. Scientists also say that photosynthetic plants are likely to be blue, violet or even black near such stars. That’s not true here (the movie was shot in Hawaii). (AMC Theaters has an ad showing an audience in an outdoor theater on an M-star planet with blue plants, probably pretty realistic to what one would really find.) Later the film allows some nightfall, which contradicts the premise that the sun never moves.

As for the story – it brings to mind “Pitch Black” (2000) – but the characters find they have been put on a planet where their earthly behavior would make them normal. The planet is a game preserve, with larger aliens that can don metal suits and materialize from invisibility, and use laser beams.

Now one of my screenplays is called “Prescience”, and it would be a sequel to “Titanium”. Now there is some overlap, as I repeat the UFO landing at the beginning of the sequel, and take them to an M-Star planet with an annular same-side civilization. But what I propose is a train that runs a 10000 mile circle through all the “lands” as if the planet were a Disney theme park (not a game preserve), with each “kingdom” a closed society fixed at a particular point in history and technological development, so that the social structures vary, as well as does art and culture. Abductees are tested in a central synecdoche, and then shipped to the appropriate kingdom. But through telepathy they learn what has happened back to Earth, which has been knocked out by EMP. But the alien planet is approaching its expiration in the form of a nearby brown dwarf.

The sound track is stunning in DTS, and the closing credit offer a real concert overture by John Debney (after “Long Tall Sally”), which has some cohesion rather than being episodic. The movie sound track quotes Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” once. The film is directed by Nimrod Antal with distribution by Twentieth Century Fox (now in its proud 75th year – when does it become 21st Century?)

The film is regarded as third in the “Predator” franchise, which started with a Schwarzenegger movie in 1987, where the alien is in the Central American jungle.

Analytics

Privacy Policy

Privacy Policy for billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com

If you require any more information or have any questions about our privacy policy, please feel free to contact us by email at JBoushka@aol.com.

At billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com , the privacy of my visitors is of extreme importance to me. This privacy policy document outlines the types of personal information is received and collected by billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com and how it is used.

Log Files Like many other Web sites, billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com makes use of log files. The information inside the log files includes internet protocol ( IP ) addresses, type of browser, Internet Service Provider ( ISP ), date/time stamp, referring/exit pages, and number of clicks to analyze trends, administer the site, track user’s movement around the site, and gather demographic information. IP addresses, and other such information are not linked to any information that is personally identifiable.

Cookies and Web Beacons billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com does not use cookies.

DoubleClick DART Cookie

.:: Google, as a third party vendor, uses cookies to serve ads on billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com .
.:: Google's use of the DART cookie enables it to serve ads to your users based on their visit to billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com and other sites on the Internet.
.:: Users may opt out of the use of the DART cookie by visiting the Google ad and content network privacy policy at the following link.

Some of our advertising partners may use cookies and web beacons on my site. My advertising partners include ....... Google Adsense

These third-party ad servers or ad networks use technology to the advertisements and links that appear on billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com send directly to your browsers. They automatically receive your IP address when this occurs. Other technologies ( such as cookies, JavaScript, or Web Beacons ) may also be used by the third-party ad networks to measure the effectiveness of their advertisements and / or to personalize the advertising content that you see.

billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com has no access to or control over these cookies that are used by third-party advertisers.

You should consult the respective privacy policies of these third-party ad servers for more detailed information on their practices as well as for instructions about how to opt-out of certain practices. billsmoviereviews.blogspot.com 's privacy policy does not apply to, and we cannot control the activities of, such other advertisers or web sites.

If you wish to disable cookies, you may do so through your individual browser options. More detailed information about cookie management with specific web browsers can be found at the browsers' respective websites.

Especially for EU visitors: This site uses cookies from Google to deliver its services, to personalize ads and to analyze traffic. Information about your use of this site is shared with Google. By using this site, you agree to its use of cookies. For more info visit https://www.google.com/policies/technologies/cookies/